Mercedes begins production of the Mercedes EQS SUV at its plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, which is going to produce also the Mercedes EQE SUV , which will enter production by the end of this year.
Mercedes’ strategy is to produce the equivalent electric models in the same plant where conventional models are produced even though they use different platforms.
Thus, the Mercedes EQS is produced in Sindelfingen alongside the Mercedes S-Class even though they use different platforms.
That’s why the Mercedes EQS SUV will be produced in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where the world’s largest Mercedes SUV plant is located and where the Mercedes GLE and GLS are currently produced. Mercedes has been producing SUVs in Tuscaloosa since 1997, starting with the Mercedes ML.
4 million vehicles have rolled off the Tuscaloosa plant’s production line since 1997 and 260,000 units were produced in 2021 alone. Two-thirds of Tuscaloosa production is exported, with Mercedes-Benz US International being one of the largest exporters in the US. There are 4,500 people working here, plus another 11,000 in horizontal industry.
In order to support the production of the new electric models, Mercedes has started building battery plants all over the world where it has major plants. Thus, very close to Tuscaloosa, in Bibb County, Mercedes built a battery plant to serve the production of the Mercedes EQS SUV and EQE SUV.
Opening in March 2022, the Bibb County plant produces batteries on a 300-meter (985 feet) long production line that includes 70 workstations. In line with Mercedes’ strategy to be CO2 neutral, the Bibb County plant will use only renewable energy from 2024.
Mercedes is not disclosing the production capacity for the Mercedes EQS SUV because demand is difficult to estimate at this time.
But there is a hint, because the new Mercedes EQS limousine is not selling as well as its conventional Mercedes S-Class counterpart. In the first 3 months of 2022, 3,483 S-Class were sold in Europe and 4,817 in the US as opposed to only 2,213 EQS in Europe and 2,091 in the US.
